Singled Out: “I Wanna Be A Giraffe” – Andrew & Polly

I love when kids wear their dress up clothes in public like it’s just another day. The matter of fact way they own whatever identity they take on is so amazing to watch. Almost 7, and in first grade, my daughter doesn’t seek to dress up as much anymore, but she used to dress up all the time: The Hulk, a blue bird, a Bob Marley medical doctor mashup. And it didn’t matter if we were walking down the street, or going into a restaurant, library or post office. It was all the same. Playing dress up gives kids such an amazing outlet to explore their imaginations, expand their creative minds, and even connect a little more with their own feelings and emotions. In their latest single, “I wanna be a giraffe,” Andrew & Polly capture the essence of all of this.

Polly adds: This song is sung by a giraffe – but also by us, obviously! It’s a little absurd but we feel this way all the time. At first, the giraffe is feeling awkward and exposed out on the savannah. After trying out a few disguises, the giraffe realizes how much fun it is to try new things – we can imagine a great montage in which the giraffe stands in a dressing room trying on lots of different costumes while singing, “I wanna be something else! I wanna be something else today!!!”

There are so many different ways to dress, so many different jobs and hobbies you could have, so many different ways to talk and think and look and feel. The giraffe likes imagining all the possibilities – we do, too! So the giraffe realizes – “I wanna be like you… And I also kinda wanna be me, too. There’s just so many ways to be – I wanna be a lot of things.”

Trying out the new things helps the giraffe realize – you don’t have to just be one thing. And you can change whenever you want. At the end of all that, it’s easy for the giraffe to say – “I… I wanna be a giraffe!”